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The United States announced joint military flight drills in Guyana on Thursday as soaring tensions over a contested oil-rich region with neighbor Venezuela prompted the UN Security Council to call an urgent meeting.

French police on Thursday said they had arrested two men for fraud after they sold bedbug pest control services to elderly people who did not need them, charging them hefty sums for the service.

Olaf Scholz on Thursday became the first German chancellor to light Berlin's central Hanukkah menorah, in a sign of "solidarity" with Jews amid a surge of anti-Semitism during the Israel-Hamas war.

French champions Paris Saint-Germain said Thursday that the US investment firm Arctos Partners had acquired a minority stake in the Qatari-owned French club.

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Thursday hit out at "absolutely absurd" portrayals of partying in Downing Street during the Covid pandemic, as he faced a second day of questioning at a public inquiry.

Global stock markets diverged on Thursday, on the eve of key US jobs data, as oil prices rebounded slightly from five-month lows.

The UK government announced Thursday that the BBC licence fee will rise after a two-year freeze, but the broadcaster indicated the increase would not be enough to ward off further cuts.

French President Emmanuel Macron meets Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday in a bid to break the deadlock ahead of an EU summit after the Hungarian leader threatened to block further backing for Ukraine.

French champions Paris Saint-Germain said on Thursday US investment firm Arctos Partners had acquired a minority stake in the Qatari-owned French club.

Greece and Turkey on Thursday restarted high-level talks to reduce chronic tensions in their relations as the Turkish president visited Athens for the first time in six years.

A 14-year-old girl shot a classmate dead and injured five people before killing herself at a secondary school in the Russian city of Bryansk near the Ukraine border on Thursday.

The European Union failed to clinch a deal Thursday on a sweeping law on artificial intelligence after nearly 24 hours of negotiations, but vowed to continue talks the next day.

EU leaders said Thursday they had pressed China's leadership on a yawning trade imbalance as well as expressing concern over Beijing's pressure on Taiwan and support for isolated Russia, at their first in-person summit in over four years.

France's World Cup winner Paul Pogba is facing the possibility of a lengthy ban after Italy's national anti-doping tribunal called for a four-year suspension for the Juventus midfielder, a club source told AFP on Thursday.

The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Russia used a rare face-to-face meeting to urge oil producers to stick to pledged supply cuts, a joint statement said Thursday.

France's Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera on Thursday ruled out any move of Olympic surfing events away from Tahiti after environmental damage occurred during tests last week.

Climate change caused by human activity made torrential rains that have lashed East Africa since October and killed more than 300 people up to twice as intense, a scientific study said Thursday.

Scott McTominay called on Manchester United to show consistency after they lifted the pressure on under-fire boss Erik ten Hag with a 2-1 win against Chelsea.

A huge blast at an explosives depot in Seychelles on Thursday injured 66 people and brought down buildings, prompting the country's "shocked" president to declare a state of emergency.

Japan's space industry opened potentially an udder-ly new chapter on Thursday with a start-up testing a prototype rocket engine that runs on fuel derived purely from a plentiful local source: cow dung.

European and Asian stock markets retreated Thursday on the eve of key US jobs data, as oil prices rebounded slightly from five-month lows.

Unai Emery refused to label Aston Villa as Premier League title contenders after his side climbed to third place with a 1-0 win against champions Manchester City.

Big-hitting New Zealander Colin Munro slammed an unbeaten 99 to help steer Brisbane Heat to a 103-run thrashing of Glenn Maxwell's Melbourne Stars Thursday on the opening day of Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash League.

Newcomers Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin claimed figure skating gold in the pairs short programme at the Grand Prix Final in Beijing on Thursday.

A much-anticipated US approval of wider bitcoin trading has helped the world's biggest cryptocurrency reach 20-month heights, risking however pain for new investors unaccustomed to its volatility.

Pep Guardiola admits "struggling" Manchester City's unexpected stumble in the Premier League title race has left him searching for solutions to the champions' problems.

The Ukrainian government is "very concerned" by the call from sports federations and National Olympic Committees to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at next year's Paris Olympics, its acting sports minister has told AFP.

Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities Thursday as the bloodiest ever war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas entered its third month since the October 7 attacks.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes will pass the $100-billion threshold for the fourth year running in 2023, reinsurance giant Swiss Re said Thursday.

Fatah, the largest Palestinian party, has seen its popularity plunge during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, from where the Islamists violently ousted rivals Fatah in 2007.

Agnes Chow was trapped in Hong Kong, had her passport seized and was branded a "foreign agent" after years as one of the city's most prominent democracy activists.

Asian stocks sank Thursday, extending a rollercoaster week across world markets as investors jockey for position ahead of key US jobs data and oil struggled to bounce back after hitting a five-month low.